Garth Brooks Calgary Stampede Tickets Sell Out In Less Than A Minute!

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The Calgary Stampede is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and one of the performers at the annual summer event in Calgary, Alberta (Canada) is Garth Brooks. Tickets for the July 12 concert went on sale this past Saturday (April 14) via Ticketmaster, and much to many fans’ chagrine, they sold out fast. Very fast. As in, they were literally gone in less than one minute.

According to the Calgary Herald, this was the fastest sellout in the Stampede’s 100-year history.

Since Brooks is basically retired from touring, catching him live (outside of Las Vegas, where he has an ongoing showcase) is a rarity. So it’s little surprise the tickets — about 11,000 of which went on sale that morning — proved hard to get. Still, many fans were upset. Much of the anguish centers around the fact that tickets showed up quickly after the sell-out on ticket resale sites like Stubhub.

To address the issue, Kurt Kadatz, Director of Corporate Communications for the Calgary Stampede, offered details on the sale, to help quell rumors of shady backroom deals.

“The concert has a capacity of 15,322 tickets. After the Saddledome Club seat holders purchased approximately 3,300 tickets (they have a license agreement that allows them to purchase their seats for every event or concert held in the building), 11,000 tickets were available for the 10:00 am Saturday sale. The balance of tickets, about 1,000, were dedicated for the promoter’s business commitments, artist holds, sponsors, etc. – far less than many typical concerts. There was no pre-sale for media, artist fan clubs, or credit card sponsors. That equates to over 90% of available inventory for access by the public – a far cry from the rumors that only 20% or 30% were available.”

One statistic he notes is that “over 80% of roughly 3,500 purchasers are from Calgary and Alberta.” He then goes on to speculate that, “by the interest shown in Garth’s concert, it could have sold out 10 times over, if not more.”

Mike Bell, again the Calgary Herald, wrote an opinion piece about what he dubs the Great Garth Brooks Outrage of 2012, saying that, like it or not, sometimes things simply don’t turned out as one hopes. “Life is only fair when you understand that it isn’t,” he wrote.

In the meantime, Brooks continues his run of performances at Wynn Las Vegas.